Monday 31th March 2008

Babies, babies, babies. This is so cool. A little baby boy was brought in today by the police. His name is Craig. I asked about another, cute-as-a-button little girl called Izzy. She was found in a plastic bag on the side of the road when she was 1 day old. Little David is another heart breaker. He has large burn marks all over the top of his head and he is a cuddle addict. As we mentioned, Kaz has been helping in the kitchen, washing dishes and preparing baby food for 75. Well, they give them fresh juice to drink and were making it by blending the carrots etc finely, and then trying to force it through a sieve with a spoon! Needless to say, not a great deal of juice came out, so a quick trip to the local kitchen appliance shop, and wallah! A new spoon and sieve! No, a flash juice extractor was accepted with glee and the juice was soon flowing like the Nile River (which, incidentally, has its source here in Uganda). For Kaz it was out of the kitchen and into the barber shop for most of today. In Africa, clippers are the order of the day, so she shaved her way through 63 little heads (for some reason they are letting Izzy and Seth’s hair grow into a nice big Afro and the premmies are also exempt). For those who are interested, they use the closest possible shave, practically bald. We also ducked off at lunch time with our new friends Matt & Tanya Cross for a quiche and to see the site they will hopefully buy for the proposed children’s hospital and prayed for its success.

Matt & Tanya with us at "Cafe Pap"


Gabi & David
Mahalia holding Kate

Sunday 30th March 2008
Gave ourselves a chill out day filled with maths. The kids are actually getting pretty good at it. Realised we could have been getting around for the past 4 days for ¼ the price in one of the guest house vans. Doh! This evening we went to see the Ndere dance troupe. 3 hours of traditional African dance set to the story of a King auditioning potential suitors for his daughter. A truly amazing evening of non-stop energetic jumping, wiggling and lots of shaking of tail feathers to the rhythmic sounds of African drums and traditional stringed instruments. PS We drove on the worst pot-holed road I have ever seen today. There were over 300 pot holes in a 100m stretch, each one between ½ m and 1m in diameter and up to 300mm deep. People drive on the dirt verge because it’s way smoother than the “sealed” road, and this is downtown Kampala! Pete.

Saturday 29th March 2008
Met up with faithful Bob our taxi man then it was off to baby land. The kids all seemed to slot in and head off to their respective rooms. We are always welcomed warmly as they are short of staff at the moment. I seem to find myself in the kitchen yet again, but I always manage to escape in the afternoon for some cuddles and feeding. Even though there are so many children here, the one-on-one contact is quite amazing, the children are very settled and content, they’re fed well, they’re always in clean outfits and they have their own cots with a soft toy in each one. Their nappies are constantly changed and they manage to get 12 babies asleep in one room, so the routine is amazing. It’s hard to believe the stories that brought them here when you see their smiley faces. Some have been orphaned because of AIDS, one was found at the rubbish dump in a plastic bag, a few were found at the bottom of pit toilets and the fire brigade had to be called in to rescue them. They still bear the scars on their little bodies where they were attacked by maggots. Some were dropped off at the police station, some at the hospital, 1 little girl was raped and spent her first few months in the office because she was so traumatised, she is doing really well now. One little girl called Gabi was all dressed up complete with little suit case filled with shoes and clean clothes and was left at a local super market, they have never found her mother. There is also a little man whose parents are now in jail and were involved in witchcraft who systematically tortured him with cigarette burns, knives and poured acid down his throat. They are looking at sending him off to Sydney this year for medical investigation and possibly operations because he’s 3 years old and is still on liquids. These graphic stories are hard to believe when you see their happy faces but I felt to tell their stories because it makes this work all the more amazing. We just met a couple the other day from Oz who are here to build Uganda’s first children’s hospital under the Watoto banner. We will be going with them tomorrow to pray over the land they hope to purchase. It’s so inspiring to be around such great vision. Then home for some study, showers, church and out for dinner. We had a great night. The company far made up for my dodgy curry. Love to you all Kaz xxx

Matthew

Elijah & Peter

Luke
Miles & Luke

Micah

KPC Church

Friday 28th March 2008

Another day with the babies. And it’s not even getting the least bit tiring! I’ve been sneaking off into the premmies room and helping feed, change and put to sleep the babies. I absolutely love this job. The nanny’s (they are between the ages 20-30) love it when I come in to help and they asked me where I learnt all the stuff about babies and I said I got it from my aunty. Maddi is also a favourite with the nanny’s and has been asked to come back tomorrow. MahaliaJ Met another couple from Oz today, Matt & Tanya Cross, who work with Watoto. Had lunch together and will go to their place tomorrow. Turns out they’re from Wayne & Lyn Alcorn’s church in Brizzie. Still a small world! Pete

Thursday 27th March 2008
Here we go! Well we were with the babies again today, they’re sooo gorgeous. First thing first, breakfast. bananas with yoghurt. MESSY! They gulped it down like there was no tomorrow. After de-yoghurting them it was play and cuddle time. Mum was busy in the kitchen washing dishes for 3 hours! (Finish one load and in came the next! 75 little ones =lots of dishes) while dad and us kids got the best job... lots of cuddle time. Then came more mess with lunch. Rice, avocado and beans with a mango, paw-paw, lemon and passionfruit smoothie which mum cut up, well they certainly did enjoy it! From there it was bath time. Good idea. After putting all the kids to sleep we (Except Mahalia who stayed behind and looked after the premmies) went to a nearby shopping mall for some lunch. Back to the babies at around 3pm and stayed for another hour changing nappies while Dad was in charge of folding all the blankets then home for some homework and dinner. Relaxing in our guest house room at the moment, Dad- Sudoku, Mum- reading, Mahalia- decided to write a book the other day actually so she’s working on that, Elijah- doing long division! (pfuit) and me- writing the blog. Well goodnight, another L-O-N-G day with the babies tomorrow! Maddi This ministry is awesome! We bumped into a fellow Aussie at Baby Watoto, Dave Cannon, who’s a good friend of Rob & Tamara’s and was at BCF last August. Small world! Pete

Wednesday 26th March 2008

Back in the ‘80s Canadian Pastors Gary & Marilyn Skinner felt called by God to start a church here in Uganda, and so Kampala Pentecostal Church (KPC) was born. It was towards the end of the grizzly reign of the infamous Idi Amin who murdered millions of his own people in a bloodbath that is often compared to Hitler’s holocaust. The Skinners were often threatened and robbed at gunpoint back then which only adds to the impressiveness of the ministry they have managed to build. When Amin was finally toppled he left thousands of children orphaned whose parents he had brutally murdered and the Skinners stepped up to the plate and began Watoto (translated “children” in Swahili) to look after them. They now have established 3 children’s villages (Buloba, Bbira and Suubi with a combined total of about 1200 kids) each with both primary and secondary schools, teachers, medical facilities and each group of 8 kids has a “mother” who lives with them in their little house and looks after them. She is considered their mum for life! When teams of volunteers come here from western countries to build houses or help around the projects, they pay for all the materials, work alongside locals and are really appreciated. The houses cost $35k and are way above the regular Ugandan standard as everything these guys does is excellent.

Evidently over 50% of their support comes from Australian church teams so we were very warmly welcomed and given a guided tour of 2 of the villages and the latest addition to the Watoto family, “Bullrushes” or “Baby Watoto”. This is where abandoned and orphaned babies as young as new-borns are brought and raised until they are old enough to go to one of the Watoto Children’s villages. They love volunteers here because the babies need one to one cuddling time and there are too many for the full time staff to cater for (75 bubs), so if cuddling orphaned babies is your thing, this is the place for you. We also visited KPC. Wow, what an outfit. Hillsong have sent many teams here to train their musos and tech teams, so needless to say it was impressive. Can’t wait for Sunday!

Elijah: I really enjoyed looking at and visiting the Watoto villages and I thought they put a great effort into it. My favourite place was visiting the Baby Watoto home because they were really cute and cuddly. I also really enjoyed seeing the church that we are going to visit on Sunday.

Elijah with Madeline

Mahalia: As most of you may know I have been wanting to work in the BCF crèche for some time now, so having the chance to hold little African babies was too good to be true! Their afros were sooo cute. The three babies I cuddled were Jonathan, Nathan and Fred. I even got to feed Nathan but every time I went to put him down he would start crying. ooohhh. I so did NOT want to leave, but I had to. We are now at the guesthouse raring to go back tomorrow. J Mahalia

Mahalia feeding Nathan

Tuesday 25th March 2008

We did the 250km drive back to Nairobi yesterday in only 4½ hours (the roads are shocking) and stayed at the Anglican Guest House. Pastor Daniel took us to his office at the Nairobi Baptist Centre on the way. We requested a 6am wakeup call which came at 5.30! So we headed off to the airport bound for Uganda. The 40 min drive from Entebbe to the capital of Kampala is beautiful and green, it’s hard to believe this was once Idi Amin’s killing fields. We checked in to the Nami Rembi guest house and caught up on some emailing. Tomorrow we’re off to visit a village that the Wototo children’s project is involved in. Should be good.

Pastor Daniel & Mama Muenge

Friday 12th- Monday 24th March 2008
Ye ha ! We have just landed back in Nairobi. Had a great shower, washed my dreaddies and am here to fill you in on all the goodies. Where to begin? There is so much to say, trying to capture the feel of the last 10 days. Let’s just say the kids didn’t want to leave and there was a quiet tear shed. I might put things in note form for more info.- It feels like from morning till night you are either picking vegies, cutting vegies, washing vegies or cooking them. All this was being done on the floor of the outside kitchen with their little tabby curled up by the fire and a few chooks picking at the plates from the last meal with cows mooing at the door and poppy the dog dozing in the red dirt.

- Cooking can be fiddly .The potatoes and garlic are so small that trying to peel them with a blunt knife can be quite a chore (Mental note: buy potato peeler, broom, sharp knives, containers, lanterns, candles.... hang the candles, let’s get the house wired! So 3 electricians, 1 carpenter, solar panel, battery, wires and bla bla bla, the famous quote from a faithful friend of mine ‘let there be light’, became a reality... and there was much rejoicing in a very subdued Kenyan way.- One of Pete’s visits into town to organise the lights (you know how focused he can get when he’s on a mission) found him tearing down the drive way calling “quick kids the cow’s giving birth” so maths books went flying and we bolted to the neighbour’s paddock to see pastor Daniel “the midwife” just delivering the calf. We all let out a cheer and sat excitedly awaiting her first steps.
- Now with the boys off to town I never realised that Mama Muenge was under strict instructions from pastor Daniel to kill the rooster ready for dinner. Now as rural as she is she didn’t want to kill the rooster, the kids didn’t want to eat a friend, and the neighbour didn’t want to kill it. But she said she must obey her husband, something I assured her I fully understood. I too am a woman under authority. I told her I could gut it and cut it but not kill it. SO... we paid the equivalent of $1.20 to John the shepherd boy to kill it and the rest is history. Elijah forgot about his companion and just hoed into the neck like he bought it from Woolies and we all enjoyed a chewy rooster stew... Next morning was quieter. Mahalia noticed the other rooster had taken pole position and was enjoying the harem with no other male competition...
- Maddi and I took on the job of sorting through the rice for any foreign objects. We sat in the sun with an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and did our ritual rice sorting.
- Besides the constant smell of urine on our shoes I’d say the whole pit toilet thing was a breeze (Pete’s balance is definitely improving).- Wood was chopped and water heated every morning for a bucket wash splashed on by hand. It was a treat and a great way to start the day.- One last thing before I hand over to Pete. The Kenyan people sure no how to greet each other. The women shake hands like arm wrestlers and the men show no partiality, they greet you with big smiles. Pastor Daniel had the only car in the village of 1000 so everyone stopped for a chat and a shake wishing us a ‘good safari’.. Kaz

Pete here. The past 10 days in the village of Kariki (it’s really more of a community of small farms than a village) have been very cool. I was wondering how the kids would go with no running water and no electricity. They also had to share a hard single bed and their diet was somewhat different from the buffets they’ve become accustomed to. Well I’m very proud to report they were FANTASTIC! Didn’t miss a beat. They slipped into the “simple life” like they’d been doing it all their lives. As Kaz mentioned they didn’t want to leave.

I, on the other hand, had a tough time getting used to “kune matata” (African time). It makes “Broome time” seem positively punctual. I was on a solar mission as Kaz put it, and knew that we needed certain supplies and had a very limited time to get them. For a start we needed money, but the ATMs have a daily limit of “chicken feed”, so we had to travel 1½ hours EACH WAY over the roughest of roads in a Toyota Corolla 4 days in a row to the nearest town with an ATM, Nyeri, just to pay for it! We tore a hole in the exhaust, broke the rear suspension leaf spring and cracked the cylinder head, and that was just in the 10 days we were here. Then we had to get home before the afternoon rains. You simply can’t drive on the last 9kms of dirt road if it’s even a little wet, it turns to mud that’s as slippery as ice. Now since I was unkeen to walk 9 kms in the rain and mud, I wanted to get moving, but noooo, We must “take breakfast” first, then heat the water for our wash, etc, etc. Getting the supplies was also a lesson in the 4th fruit of the Spirit, but we eventually got it all done... nearly. They haven’t quite finished the installation so the family is only hooked up to the battery at the moment. The panel that recharges the battery will hopefully be put up on Thursday. Having said that, I must admit the drive to and from Nyeri each day was always fascinating. They don’t buy fruit and veg from a store, they buy it from people along the side of the road when you enter a little village. You slow down and the many vendors rush up to your car yelling in the local Kikuyu dialect and thrusting their produce through your window, literally cms from your face, 6 bags of onions, 4 bags of garlic cloves, 5 bags of carrots and even the odd capsicum. You then negotiate the price and bob’s your uncle! You’ve got a bag of onions in your lap though you’re not sure which hand they came from and which one you gave the money to. Pastor Daniel also took me to meet the village committee responsible for their water project. They plan to pipe water from a river nearly 10kms away so that every house will have water on tap. At present, Daniel drives his little Corolla 8kms to the river every day and fills up 2x100 litre barrels (that’s 200kgs in the back) over a road that would cause even a 4 wheel drive to bottom out. Add to this 4 or 5 passengers hitching a lift on the way (no I’m not exaggerating) and it’s not hard to see why the car is constantly getting damaged. Mind you, he’s the only one with a car. The others have to walk or use a donkey. Actually, helping him collect the water with Elijah was a highlight. There is a family of Black & White Colobus monkeys at the river. They are spectacular, so beautiful in fact that their pelt is prized for Village Chiefs to wear as hats.

Local boys collecting the daily water

Any hoo, they took us to see where the big water tank was going to go, and while we were there, we saw a small herd of elephants. They have put up an electric fence to keep them out of the village (I’m not sure where the power comes from) but the farmers still graze their cows on the elephant’s side. Turns out the elephants don’t like sharing their pasture and 3 days ago they killed one of the cows by picking it up and throwing it, then trampling it! Apparently the current record is 12m for a cow throw.Another highlight of the last 10 days was sitting down and doing schoolwork with the kids. It was like little house on the prairie. What nice children I have! Watching them interact and play with the local kids who love to practice their English on them, seeing Elijah guide a flock of sheep through the gate for the night with a machete in hand, feeding chickens, attempting to milk the cows, cooking over a fire in a smoke filled little hut, it was awesome!

Church was pretty cool too. I preached on Palm Sunday in Kariki and travelled to Pastor Daniel’s home village, where he grew up, for Easter Sunday. They dance and sing for 1½ hours unaccompanied - very African and absolutely amazing!

Maddi: Wow! What an experience... To be honest living on a farm is pretty cool, 10 days just wasn’t enough! Cows, sheep and chickens (which sadly we ate one, as Mum mentioned earlier because for them it was an honour to kill a rooster and offer it to your guest... I tried talking them out of it!!!) ‘Norman’ the calf Mahalia named the first day we arrived, was the cutest calf, he had floppy ears and not to mention there was always a dag coming out the end of you know what. (Maddi: “Elijah, that looks painful for Norman, go pull it off” which to no-one’s surprise he actually went to do it, Mum: “NO!!! SHE WAS JOKING” of course I gave out a giggle! Thank goodness he didn’t actually do it!)

Ps. Daniel and Mama Muage’s grand daughter, Alice, lives with them and she is a gracious young girl who helps with cooking and house chores... She shared a room with Mahalia and myself. Alice and her friend, Janet, both were amazed at my long hair; they brushed plaited and did everything else with it that you could possibly imagine! (At their school if they don’t shave their head every week they get beaten!) They said when they leave school they want to grow it down their back. It was a great past 10 days, I definitely won’t forget... Maddi

Elijah: The last 10 day were magnificent. I did some jobs and the one I really enjoyed was a shepherd. I met a boy called John who was all by himself in the paddock so I went and helped him but I didn’t get to talk with him a lot because he didn’t know English which was a shame. I brought the cows in and when John milked the cow he let me have a go, and also I went with him to go and chop wood with a machete. When we had dinner we lit a candle every night for light. A year ago they bought an electric oven but they haven’t used it because they don’t have power, but they did have a solar panel. So we brought them some wires and lights so that they had power to run off the solar panel. I’m glad it helped them. The last 10 days on that farm were great! Elijah

Mahalia: well... there is not much more to say EXCEPT that, the morning after we ate one of their roosters we woke up to see three new baby chicks, a new baby calf next door and a relieved puppy that we let of his lead. Don’t worry aunty Donna we have been working, in fact, we’ve been learning from the books you gave Elijah... science (great inventions), earth (under the sea), history (ancient Egypt). We’ve also been doing maths, reading and I’ve been getting good at Sudoku. We have already given away 2 books, one to Alice who we are sharing a room with (Charlie and the Chocolate factory “Roald Dahl”) and one to another Alice who lives next door (James and the Giant peach “Roald Dahl”).(I highly recommend these Books to Uncle Wayne’s crew). J Mahalia!!!